I was in my wife’s favourite Chinese bakery the other day searching for red bean buns. The décor is nothing special, but the baked goods are exceptionally well done and insanely fresh! It’s no wonder then that we’re willing to travel a little bit out of our way to go there. And judging by the line-ups, many others feel the same way.

There are other places we can go to in Chinatown for baked goods, but we choose this one because of the quality of their goods. And they can compete against other bakers on quality because none of the . . . [more]

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association recently filed a class action in Federal Court over the actions by Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC).

The statutory scheme under ss. 273.65, 273.68 and 273.7 under the National Defence A empowers CSEC to monitor communications for foreign entities, not Canadians, absent written authorization for unintended interceptions. Revelations earlier this year demonstrated that CSEC had monitored wireless devices at Canadian airports.

The claim seeks a declaratory relief of a finding of a violation of s. 8 of the Charter for the actions of CSEC. The claim takes particular issue with the collection of metadata, . . . [more]

On one Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, SupremeAdvocacyLett@r, to which you may subscribe.

Summary of all appeals and leaves to appeal granted (so you know what the S.C.C. will soon be dealing with). For leaves, both the date the S.C.C. granted leave and the date of the C.A. judgment below are added in, in case you want to track and check out the C.A. judgment. (Mar. 15 – Apr. 11 2014, inclusive). 

APPEALS

Courts/Supreme Court: . . . [more]

This week's summaries concern: Purchase of land & remedies / Workers' compensation / Habeas corpus:

Pénal : fait de conseiller le suicide est un crime d'intention spécifique; en l'espèce, les propos échangés entre l'accusé et la victime sur le réseau social Facebook ne traduisent pas le degré d'insistance, de persuasion et d'incitation nécessaire à la perpétration du crime prévu à l'article 241 a) du Code criminel.

Context is everything. Which is simply to say res non ipsa loquitur. Things need more things near them to achieve meaning, significance, import — perhaps even for us to see them. That lump of metal there . . . near the edge of a smoking crater? or on a pedestal in a room hung about with paintings? Big diff.

Now, lumps of metal don’t have as their primary function the carrying of meaning. Words, though, do. Which is to say context is routinely consulted when we utter. Goes without saying — without awareness, most of the time. Some folks, . . . [more]

Over the past decades the publishing industry has developed standards to provide unique identifiers to text products. The most well known is the ISBN, the International Standard Book Number, which now comprises 13 digits, and ensures the same titles published in different parts of the world can be identified separately. The version used for periodicals is the 8 digit ISSN – International Serial Serial Number. Then there is the International Standard Text Code (ISTC), a numbering system for the unique identification of text-based works, which links different text works within books, audio books, etc. All of these standards ensure . . . [more]

Every year, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) hands out the Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

It honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series, website or e-product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

The nominees for this year are:

• The Queen’s Bench Rules of Saskatchewan: Annotated, 4^th ed. (Law Society of Saskatchewan Libraries)
• Juris Classeur Québec (LexisNexis Canada)
• Copyright Law, Fourth Edition (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.)
• GALLOP: Government and Legislative Libraries Online Publications Portal (Association

. . . [more]

The Government of Quebec has announced that effective April 2014, the proper citation format for Quebec laws and regulations derived from the consolidated collection will be RLRQ. The previous abbreviation was LRQ (statutes) and RRQ (regulations).

The new policy can be viewed by clicking on this link.

See: la Gazette officielle du Québec, partie 2, (2 avril 2014, no 14, pg 1303): Politique sur le recueil des lois et des règlements du Québec.

This revised Policy replaces the Politique sur le Recueil des lois et des règlements du Québec, published on January 3rd, 2013.

SOQUIJ users will . . . [more]

From April to June 2014, the Ontario Ministry of Labour is conducting an employment standards inspection blitz targeting organizations that employ unpaid interns. The goal is to ensure worker rights are protected and enhance employers' awareness of their responsibilities.

Many clergy have complained of contemporary society’s loss of faith. Attendance at religious service is down. Faith in the Almighty is considered quaint, antiquated or – by the more rabidly atheist – downright stupid and offensive. Yet rare is the church where doomsday promises of Armageddon-induced hellfire have sparked a mass return to the foot of the altar. I therefore find it peculiar when Federal Justice Minister, Peter MacKay, bemoans Canadians’ loss of faith in the criminal justice system while in the same breath repeating his oft-made promise to rain a fury of new tough-on-crime hail from on-high upon the . . . [more]

Each Thursday we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form.

Refining the Reasonable Apprehension of Bias Test: Providing Judges Better Tools for Addressing Judicial Disqualification
Jula Hughes & Philip Bryden
36:1 Dalhousie Law Journal (2013) 171-192

Introduction

The “reasonable apprehension of bias” test for judicial disqualification has been a fixture of Canadian law for many years, at a minimum since its formulation in . . . [more]